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The Australian rangelands are changing rapidly under the influence of social, economic, political and environmental forces. The prevailing political climate favours markets as a means of achieving social ends, but the free operation of markets cannot lead to ecologically sustainable resource use. To achieve that, intervention is needed. Economists could influence the coming changes in many ways. They include: the use of both market and non -market values in estimates of net benefit of development; representation of future generations on decision-making bodies; designing policies which match market demand to ecological supply over time and space; estimation of conservation- production trade -offs in conflicts over regional land allocation; finding ways of linking new resource uses into local economies; and the design of instruments for promoting sustainable resource use.